King of the Playground!
by xMousex
Summary: (REUPLOADED! READ A/N.) Join Monkey D. Luffy as he begins his journey of becoming the King of the Playground! There's lots of obstacles in the way, but with the help of friends and meat Luffy can power through it all and become the Playground King!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. Neither does librastar. Happy reading.**

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The minute hand of the clock didn't seem to be moving at all.

 _A you're an apricot,_

 _B you're a blueberry,_

 _C you're a chocolate full of chips..._

Teacher Zeff walked round the class, making sure every single student was singing along but Monkey D. Luffy wasn't listening for a further second. And the the song they were currently learning wasn't helping either.

"I'm hungry!" He yelled for the tenth time that hour, stretching his skinny arms into the air and bursting out of his chair eagerly in restless agitation. "When's recess?!"

Teacher Zeff's mustache twitched, his long dirty blonde plaits swinging menacingly as he hovered over the small black-haired boy still beating his chest and decrying his apparent starvation; utterly oblivious to Zeff's growing irritation. "You'll listen to what I say for the rest of the lesson you little eggplant, or you'll only be getting fruits for recess! You got that?"

Zeff gave Luffy his best glare, the one usually reserved for people that made fun of his school lunches but instead of bursting into tears, Luffy merely grinned and threw back his head in laughter. "Shishishi! Okay old man! I'm going to become King of the Playground so I have to eat to keep up my strength!"

King of the what..?! Zeff rubbed his temples. If he had known that Dragon's son would have been such a handful, he would have put more effort into convincing Principal Sengoku to let Dragon find another elementary school, even if that man did scare the living daylights out of anyone who came within a five mile radius of him. It was only the first day of the new school term but he was already developing a headache from the newest batch of children. Thank goodness his own boy had had the sense to behave himself during his old man's class. "Here, finish up writing these alphabets, then you can go for recess."

Luffy whooped loudly, grabbing his pencil and frantically scrawling some alphabets onto the exercise book. Sighing loudly at the illegible scribbling before him, Zeff decided that his sanity was more important than Luffy's education at this stage and waved him out for the mid-morning break.

Wolfing down his sausage sandwich and apple in five seconds, Luffy turned his attention to exploring the vast playground they had been let loose in for the next twenty minutes of that morning. As he walked up to the swings, he noticed a small pink-haired boy around his age running back and forth from the canteen, carrying cups of iced juice for an enormous black-haired girl sitting on one of the swings. Her bottom was so huge it was spilling out of the seat and every slightest bit of movement was accompanied by an ominous creak from the obvious strain of the excessive weight it had to carry.

"Who is the most beautiful third grader of all, Coby?" she purred, admiring herself in her little handheld mirror as the boy, Coby, nervously handed her another cup to drink. "You...you are, Alvida-sama." he stuttered, wiping his brow tiredly as she guzzled the juice greedily before tossing the empty cup at him. "More juice, Coby. The heat from the sun is so hot, a delicate creature like me cannot possibly be expected to walk about in this absurd weather!"

As the miserable first grader shuffled back towards the canteen, Luffy ran after him. "Hey wait! Why do you have to keep serving juice to that fat kid?"

Jumping a foot in the air rather comically at the sound of Luffy's voice, Coby stared fearfully at the black-haired boy for a few seconds before whispering, "It's because of her metal ruler - everyone in my class, even the teacher, has to obey 'Iron Ruler' Third Grader Alvida, if not well...things don't go too well when that happens.." He shivered again, his entire body seeming to shrink as his eyes darted nervously back and forth between Luffy and Alvida. "She's beat up plenty of kids in the past, both girls and boys! I should get going, if not she will beat me up too…"

"Hey, wait." Luffy put his hands onto his hips and tapped his foot. "What's your name?"

"C-Coby..."

"Coby? Hmm, well that's a cool name..."

"A-Ano..." The pink haired male blushed and looked over at Luffy with a bashful expression. "What's your name?"

"Me? Shishishi..." Luffy laughed loudly, smiling his wide, idiotic smile as he crossed his skinny arms over his chest. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be King of the Playground!"

"K-King of the Playground?!" Coby stared at the boy in shock. "Impossible...absolutely impossible! Completely and utterly impossible! To become the Playground King is just impossible! There's lots of playground bullies and lots of mean teachers and- eek!" Coby let out a cry of pain when little Luffy swung his fist and landed a blow to his head. Coby crouched into a small ball and held his head tenderly, a small bump forming over the spot in which Luffy had dealt the blow. "Ouch...why did you do that, Luffy-san?!"

"Because you were being annoying." Luffy replied simply, carefully adjusting the straw hat sitting atop his head. "Now I'm hungry again. I need meat."

"Oh well..." Coby stood up and chuckled. "I'm used to it anyway. I should really go back to telling Alvida how pretty she is, or else she'll give me another smack to the head.."

"Do you really wanna go back to her though?" Luffy tilted his head to the side and picked his nose. "She doesn't seem like she's a good person at all - in fact, she's nothing but a no-good bully!"

"O-Of course I don't want to go back to her!" Coby clenched his small fists and looked down at his shoes. "I...I know I'm a really small person.." He opened one of his tiny fists and looked at the palm of his hand. "But I...I want to be on Safety Patrol with all the other big kids!"

"Safety Patrol?"

"Yes! It's my dream!" Coby clenched his fists once more and looked at Luffy, determination clear in his eyes. "I know that it means we will be enemies since you want to be the Playground King, but standing up to bullies has always been my dream! Do you think I can do it?"

"How should I know?" Luffy blinked, confusion written all over his face.

"I have to at least try!" Undeterred by Luffy's non-response, Coby adjusted his thick, purple glasses. "Maybe I can...maybe I can even stand up to Alvida!"

A dark shadow suddenly loomed over the two boys, a rather dark aura radiating from the person in waves. Luffy's instincts and Coby's common sense told the boys to move out of the way - narrowly escaping as a thick metal ruler slammed down onto the spot the boys were originally standing in, an ominous 'thwack' sound echoing as it smacked the ground. A heavy set girl dressed in a cowboy outfit leaned against the life-size metal ruler, her lips curled into a sneer and jet black locks falling in curls past her shoulders.

"Who did you say you were going to stand up to?" Alvida growled, narrowing her almond-shaped black eyes at both boys. "Eh? Coby? Do you think you can really stand up to me?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Coby squeaked, holding his hands over his head as his eyes squeezed shut. "I was just going to get you more jui…" His voice trailed off as Luffy stood up.

"Hey now." Luffy stated, putting his hand on his precious straw hat and glancing over at the pink haired boy. "Maybe you should say what's really on your mind. What do you think...Coby?"

The little pink haired boy stared at his new friend for a few seconds, before he turned to stare back at "Iron Ruler" Alvida. He clenched his fists as he remembered every unkind word Alvida had ever said to him. He remembered how she would often smack him for the tiniest things and how she had made him into her personal chore boy. He remembered, and he felt angered at that- so he decided to take Luffy's advice and to take a stand against this girl, no matter how frightening she was!

"Coby, tell me..." Alvida gave him a sinister smirk, putting her little finger onto her chin thoughtfully. "Who do you think is the most beautiful girl in the world?"

"Not you!" Coby pointed his finger at her. "You're the ugliest, meanest, rudest girl I've ever met!"

"You little brat, how dare you?!" Alvida screeched, clenching her iron ruler and raising it menacingly above their heads. "I'll make you eat your words!"

"Well said, Coby!" Luffy grinned and shoved the small pink haired boy behind him. "RUN!"

The two boys took off, with the heavy set third grader chasing after them. They were fast, but even Luffy was surprised at how fast Alvida could run. Round and round the playground, up and down the swings. She finally cornered the two first graders when they slipped down a slide.

"I've got you now.." She muttered darkly, raising her iron ruler and swinging it down onto the two boys. Coby cowered in fear and closed his eyes, but Luffy stuck his skinny arms up and curled his fingers around the ruler, stopping her dead in her tracks. He smiled and laughed his strange little laugh. "Shishishi...that won't work on me!" He pulled his fist back as Alvida struggled to free her iron ruler from Luffy's (pardon the pun) "iron" grasp. "Gomu Gomu no..." His arm shot forward. "Pistol!" His fist connected with her stomach and he sent her, along with her iron ruler, flying backwards.

Coby's mouth became a round 'O' in shock at the sight of Alvida knocked-out on the ground, her iron ruler lying harmlessly a few feet away from her side. "That was amazing!"

"Shishishi," Luffy grinned, standing up and dusting his hands on his denim shorts. "And just in time for the end of the break too." The bell rang loudly, signalling the start of mid-morning classes. He stole another glance at Alvida's prone figure. "That wasn't too bad but I'm going to need more strong nakama if I want to become the Playground King…"

Coby gulped. "You mean like Roronoa Zoro?"

"Hmm?" The black-haired first grader walked companiably back with his new-found friend. "Is he strong?"

"Strong?" The bespectacled boy yelped. "Rumour says he's a big, scary monster...and he's just one grade above us, in the second grade! He wanders the playground hunting for victims; nobody escapes him!"

"Sounds interesting - so I'll see you at lunchtime and we can go look for him! Ja ne, Coby!" Luffy waved and ran back to his classroom.

Coby waved his arms frantically. "No wait, Luffy!" He sank to the ground in resigned misery. "Why did I even bring him up?"

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 **A/N: Hello everyone! This story has indeed been reuploaded. Librastar, the other author of this story, and I are currently working on adding new chapters so please be patient with us!**

 **So come join Monkey D. Luffy on his journey to become King of the...Playground? Whaat?**

 **Also, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a pleasant day. And a Happy New Year as well**


	2. Meet Roronoa Zoro!

**Disclaimer: Neither I nor librastar own One Piece. We never will, sadly. Now read on!**

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Bellemere loved kids. Maybe she saw some of herself in some of them, or maybe she appreciated their innocence amid the everyday corruption - but Bellemere loved all of the children she taught. Even the strange Monkey D. Luffy, who was shaping up to be the biggest test in her short teaching career since quitting the Marines.

"Do you ever sit still?" She sighed, resisting the urge to reach for a much-needed smoke as the small black-haired boy continued squalling in her grasp like an escaped monkey. Fleetingly, she toyed with the idea of getting Nami to knock a lesson or two into his skinny head; her young daughter had proved to be excellent at dealing with troublemakers. But Nami wasn't talking to Bellemere after their latest fight, all because Bellemere had made Nami wear a hand-me-down dress belonging to Nojiko. She really wished she had more money to buy some of the pretty dresses and shiny toys her youngest loved, but after paying the bills and school fees; her salary as a trainee primary school teacher really didn't leave much room for luxuries.

"Ne, Bellemere-sensei, guess what I've decided?" Luffy asked excitedly, ignoring her question and running towards his desk as soon as she had let him go.

"What, Monkey-chan?" She asked, sighing once more but giving him a kind smile anyway. Monkey was just a little nickname she had given him, since the boy tended to act a lot like one and sometimes even smelled like one as well. Honestly, she couldn't understand how someone like Dragon was able to have the patience to take care of the child.

"I've decided that I'm going to be the Playground King!" He all but shouted, hopping out of his seat and jumping around the classroom in unbridled excitement. "I'm gonna make plenty of friends, and we're gonna go on lots of adventures together and maybe even find the hidden playground treasure!"

"That's nice, Lu-" She began to reply but was cut off when she heard a random burst of laughter from one of the children and his group of "friends".

"That's stupid!" Higuma yelled, giving Luffy a nasty smirk. "A little kid like you finding the playground treasure and becoming Playground King? That was a really funny joke! There's no way you could ever become Playground King, definitely not someone as small and as stupid as yourself!"

Beside Luffy, Coby was obediently sitting at his desk writing down all the capital and lowercase letters of the alphabet. Hearing Higuma's comment almost made the pink haired boy snort. ' _At least Luffy hasn't had to repeat the first grade, unlike you Higuma..'_ Coby thought to himself.

"It is not stupid!" Luffy stood up and glared at the boy. He pointed his finger at Higuma, steam shooting from his nose as he continued to speak. "It's my dream, and I'm gonna reach it! I may be small, but I'm still strong and I know that you're just mad because you don't have a dream that you can follow!"

"Having a dream is stupid! How about you wrap your head around the fact that dreams can't get you anywhere?" Higuma sneered his words, his little buddies snickering at Luffy's expense. "Especially a dream as stupid as that! Why am I still trying to argue with you? You're hopeless, and-"

"I've had enough!"

Bellemere slammed her hands down onto her desk, instantly silencing everyone in the room. Even Luffy was looking at her in surprise- Bellemere was one of his favorite teachers (he only had three) and yet he had never seen her look as serious as she did now. "Higuma, you and your little group of friends should all be ashamed of yourselves! You all must realize that there is nothing wrong with having a dream! Higuma, dreaming can only get you so far, so if you put in the work needed to reach that dream I bet you could make it happen! You are all really young, so you have no right to talk about the world as if you know how it works! If you believe you can do it, then try your hardest!" She crossed her arms under her bust, giving each of Higuma's friends a glare to which they cowered under and hung their heads in shame. "So don't go bashing other people's dreams like they don't matter!"

The entire classroom was silent, even Higuma had dropped his head in shame. Coby was staring at Bellemere with his mouth agape- he had never expected the teacher to have such an outburst.

"We're sorry, Bellemere-sensei," everyone chorused, hanging their heads and looking downcast...well, everyone except Higuma, Luffy, and Coby. Higuma continued to glare at the boy, his arms crossed over his chest and wishing he could glare holes into the back of his head.

"It's alright." The female teacher smiled softly, placing her hand onto her hip. "Now back to your work everyone, and make sure that you have the whole alphabet done. Remember, how many letters are there in the alphabet?"

"27!" Luffy shouted, waving his hand around wildly and hoping he got the answer right.

"26." Coby stated, giving his friend a deadpanned look.

"Actually, Luffy is correct Coby." Bellemere chuckled and the pink haired boy's shocked expression. "And I will explain why during our next lesson. It's time to release you all for lunchtime."

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"Luffy, I can't believe you! Not only did you stand up to "Iron Ruler" Alvida, but you also stood up to Higuma and even got Bellemere-sensei onto your side of an argument!" Coby gawked at Luffy in awe as the two made their way to the playground, carrying their lunch boxes along with them.

"Eh? Shishishi." Luffy shrugged, sitting down on a nearby bench and eagerly opening his lunchbox. "I have to be strong if I want to explore this playground! Lots of people stand in my way of becoming Playground King!"

"I still think that's a crazy dream," Coby sweatdropped as he watched the Straw Hat boy dig into his lunch, as if his grandiose statement was the most obvious thing in the world. "I mean, you seem strong and all but maybe being on Safety Patrol is better right? That way you'd be doing everyone justice by beating up the bad guys and you'd be like a hero and- ouch!" The pink haired boy rubbed his head and glanced at his friend in surprise. "Why'd you hit me?"

"I just felt like it." Luffy replied simply before taking a large bite out of his ham sandwich. "Besides, I don't want to be a hero. Heroes share their meat with other people right? They are good guys, sharing their meat and always saving the day right? But I don't want to share my meat! I want the meat all to myself, so that means I'm not a hero and never will be one!"

"Is that really how you see heroes?!"

"Duh! Idiot!" Luffy stuffed more of his sandwich into his mouth.

"No way!" Coby fell over rather comically.

"Burp! That was great!" Luffy smacked his lips appreciatively before letting out a large belch that seemed rather impossible for such a small body. "I'm still hungry though…" His gaze wandered to one of the pre-schooler girls scuttling past. "Those rice-balls look yummy," he started drooling, waving his hands frantically at her. "Can I have one of them?"

The small girl looked startled. "I'm sorry," she apologised. "But I made them for a friend of mine."

"Oh." Luffy looked disappointed, before perking up again. "Maybe your friend won't want all of them! You made five after all…"

"You can follow me," she smiled. "I'm going to visit him now."

"Awesome!" The black-haired boy hollered, before dragging the startled Coby along with them.

"Hey...hey...Luffy…," Coby stuttered nervously as the trio made their way further and further from the school canteen and towards the edges of the playground, towards the northern end of the fences. Deeper and deeper into unknown territory. "I don't like where this is going…"

"Why not?" Luffy grinned cheerily, skipping behind the little girl. "It's exciting! I've never been here before."

As the bushes gradually thinned, she suddenly ran ahead to the wooden post in the middle of the clearing, where it looked like someone was tied to the post.

"Hey, look at that person!" Luffy chuckled, his eyes widening as he hopped closer to get a better look.

As Coby slowly cracked opened his eyelids, he took one look at the figure before letting out a terrified yelp and falling over his own feet. "That black bandanna and cloth around his waist...and that intimidating aura...there's no doubt about it, it's Roronoa Zoro!"

"Ssh!" The little girl turned back to glare at them, before offering her rice balls to the green-haired boy currently tied to the post. "Aniki, I made these for you. You haven't eaten in a while have you?"

Zoro growled loudly. "Do you want to die or something? Get lost!"

"But this is the first time I've made rice balls…and I made them especially for y-you..." she stammered.

"I don't want them, leave me…!"

"Don't pick on little kids, Roronoa Zoro," a voice drawled, as a boy with a strange, helmet-haircut advanced towards the fighting pair with two others behind him as if they were his body guards.

"Some weirdo came," Luffy whispered, crouching further behind the leaves.

"You're one to talk." Coby sweatdropped. "Anyway, he must be someone important from the Safety Patrol!" Coby shivered, sweating furiously as he watched the Patrol member mocking the furious Zoro before turning to the little girl.

"Why, hello little girl," he smirked, taking a step closer towards her. "Those rice balls look pretty tasty." The Patrol member snatched one of them and stuffed it into his mouth, before retching dramatically. "HORRIBLE!" He yelped, panting heavily as he tried to get rid of the offending taste in his mouth. "You put too much sugar in it - you're supposed to put salt in these things!"

"I just thought they would taste better if they were sweeter!" The little girl defended herself, clenching her tiny fists and glaring at the strange blonde.

The boy threw the rice balls onto the ground and proceeded to stomp on them his fists clenched and his expression that of an angered baboon. The little girl slumped to her knees and could only watch in sadness as her specially made food was stomped on. Tears began to stream down her pale cheeks and she began sniffling, trying to wipe them away.

"It was your fault, ya know." The blonde haired boy stated, giving her a cruel smile as he finally stopped stomping on the rice balls. "Didn't you see this sign?" He pointed to one of the trees which had words carved into it and was signed by "Axe Fist Morgan". "Anyone who helps a prisoner will be charged with the same crime! We are the Safety Patrol! We're only doing our job! And you know how scary my big brother can be!"

The little girl only continued to cry, the tears blurring her vision. The boy 'tsked' before standing to his feet and glancing at the other two members of safety patrol behind him. "Throw her into the thorny bushes." He stated.

"E-Eh?"

"You heard me! She has to learn somehow! She cannot defy the Safety Patrol! We're the ones who protect idiots like her ! So into the bushes she goes!" The blonde grabbed the other boy by his shirt collar and smirked. "Unless you want me to get my big brother..."

Seconds later, the little girl was tossed into the thorny bushes Luffy and Coby were hiding in. Luffy caught her, of course, but none of the Safety Patrol guys seemed to notice their presence.

Seconds later, the little girl was tossed into the thorny bushes Luffy and Coby were hiding in. Luffy caught her, of course, but none of the Safety Patrol guys seemed to notice their presence.

"I didn't think you'd have this kind of endurance." The Patrol boy glanced at Zoro. "I said that a whole week would be the limit and you're still alive!"

"Yeah well you better keep your promise." Zoro grunted.

"Oh I will!" The blonde and the other two members of the safety patrol walked away after that. "Good luck!"

After making sure that the patrol kids were gone, Luffy stepped into the clearing and slowly approached Zoro with a big, goofy smile on his face. "Hey you." Luffy casually began. "I'm looking for someone to join my crew."

"Your crew?" The green haired boy snorted. "Ah I see. You're a Playground Pirate eh? Tch...so you just gave up and became a primary school criminal huh?"

"It's my dream." The boy with the straw hat replied. "Don't tell me what to do."

"Hm?" Zoro smirked. "Don't tell me that you're gonna set me free and force me to join you..?"

"I haven't made up my mind yet...since everyone thinks you're a bad guy." Luffy put his hand onto his straw hat and grinned.

"A bad guy eh?" Zoro shook his head. "I won't ever join you, because I have something that I really need to take care of first. I could survive even without you here trying to help me! If I can survive for the rest of this week then I'll be set free. And so I will do everything I can to stay alive and to fulfill a promise..."

"If I were you, I think I'd of already starved to death." Luffy cheerily stated before turning to walk away.

"Heh...and that's the difference between the two of us.." Zoro muttered as Luffy was walking away.

"Big brother didn't do anything wrong." Rika stated as she, Coby, and Luffy were standing beside a tall, blue slide. Lots of kids were playing around them. "It's just that a lot of people at school fear him. He got in trouble with Safety Patrol because he beat up Helmeppo's pet wolf."

"Why does he have a pet wolf at school in the first place.." Coby muttered. "Anyway, I think I've got things figured out. So maybe he has a bad temper, but helping Safety Patrol put the bad kids in their place..that's not a bad thing either."

And, speak of the devil, Helmeppo started walking past everyone with his head held high and two other Safety Patrol people behind him. "Who dares to raise their head in the presence of me?!" He asked, glaring at everyone in sight.

The children playing on the playground had all stopped and were all bowing their heads to the ground- all save for Luffy, Rika, and Coby.

"Do you idiots wanna be Roronoa Zoro? That stupid kid...I'm gonna personally ask that he be removed from this school in three days! I'll use him to set an example for all of you!"

"Didn't you say you'd give him a week?" Luffy asked, standing in front of the blonde.

"Who are you?" Helmeppo blinked. "Well anyway...I was only joking with him! What kind of idiot would believe that story?!"

Luffy suddenly lashed out, punching him square in his nose. Helmeppo fell back and landed on the ground, covering his bruised nose with his hand. Luffy stepped forward to land another blow but was held back by a certain pink haired dork.

"Luffy, you've gotta calm down!" Coby exclaimed, trying his best to restrain the straw hat boy.

"I've finally decided, Coby! I'm gonna ask Zoro to join me!" Luffy declared, holding up a fist and smirking widely.

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 **A/N: Chapter Three on the way.**


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